"It sticks in the throat," Julian Knight, the chair of the DCMS said. "This exposes the crazy economics in English football and the moral vacuum at its centre."

Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, added: "My view is always that those who are the least well off should get the most help.

"Highly paid football players are people who can carry the greatest burden and they should be the first one to, with respect, sacrifice their salary, rather than the person selling the programme or the person who does catering or the person who probably doesn't get anywhere near the salary some of the Premier League footballers get.

"It should be those with the broadest shoulders who go first because they can carry the greatest burden and have probably got savings, rather than those who were in catering or hospitality who have probably got no savings and live week by week and who probably won't get the [government] benefits for five weeks."

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Clubs across Europe have taken pay cuts including Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Bayern Munich.

"It's a very difficult time for everybody and I can fully understand why people think that the football industry and particularly the Premier League has got a lot of cash," he said. "In many cases that's not the case, it's a bit of a myth, but what we have to do is protect jobs.

"We're doing whatever we can to do that and that's the priority at the moment for just about every industry in the country, including ours."